Venice to Get Half of Its Electricity From Algae

Most talk of algae and renewable energy on TreeHugger involves liquid biofuels, but a new plan being put forth in Venice hopes to use algae to generate electricity and allow the city take one large step towards being entirely off fossil fuels:The idea is to take two kinds of algae which are brought in attached to ships, Sargassum muticum and Undaria pinnafitida, and use it in a new 40 MW power plant. The €200 million ($264 million) plan would supply 50% of the electricity required by Venice's city center.

EcoWordly is reporting that the algae will be cultivated in laboratories and "will be further treated to produce a fuel to turn turbines." Carbon dioxide produced in the process will be fed back to the algae.

Paolo Costa, president of the Seaport of Venice Authority talked up the plan,

Venice could represent the beginning of a global revolution of energy and renewable resources. Our goals are to achieve the energetic self-sufficiency for the seaport and to reduce CO2 emissions, including those ones produced by the docked ships.

Most talk of algae and renewable energy on TreeHugger involves liquid biofuels, but a new plan being put forth in Venice hopes to use algae to generate electricity and allow the city take one large step towards being